Do I Have to Leave You?
by Urter
Summary: "B-but... I want you to be here by my side! You were the first to steal my heart, and take it away to a paradise among the bustle of Treasure Town!" A different take on the ending of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon 2. TotodilexTorchic, PlayerxPartner. Rated T for very minor amounts of strong language and fluff. Lots of fluff. One-Shot.


**A/N: Hi, everyone!**

**Name's Urter, and I'm kind of… "New…" To the Pokemon Archive. I often stalk the Kingdom Hearts one, the Persona one, and a couple of anime ones, but I decided that, upon almost reaching the end of the first storyline for my second playthrough of this game (I don't replay much, but this game's ending was special), I was gonna make this.**

**Essentially, this is a "What if" story, but so are like, all fanfics, so bear with me for a second. I thought, "Hey, what would happen if the ending played out differently? Like, don't you think that Dialga sent the human back a little bit faster? Wouldn't he have other things to attend to?" Thus, from that, this was born. I also included a lot of PlayerxPartner fluff, because fluff is my specialty in the writing world. Also, upon trying to find names, I decided that these two specific pokemon were gonna be what I would have picked if I wanted a male and female partnership: Totodile (my MC) and Torchic (my Partner). I always thought that Totodile was the coolest thing ever, and that Torchic was one of the cutest things ever, and thus, made them my MC's.**

**...Wow, I wrote a lot. ON WITH THE STORY, CHILDREN!**

**Also, this story jumps Point of Views a lot. It starts off with our main character's point of view, and sometimes jumps to a third-person point of view. The third-person jump is really easy to see, but I will notify you guys about the first-person jumps.**

**-Start**

* * *

"Yes! We beat him!"

I looked at my partner Ember, trying to figure out how she got that personality. Her bubbly attitude, while irritating sometimes, always made me smile even more than I already was.

"Yup... We did, didn't we?" I replied back, my sad eyes betraying my giant grin.

_If you win... You will disappear from the face of this planet..._

Shaking my head, I walked over to Ember and wrapped my arms around her neck, hugging her in joy.

"You know..." Ember said, breaking away quickly. "Do you think... If I hadn't met you, Jayce, that this world would be like it was in the future: cold, dark, and out of time?"

"Yeah..." I replied. "A Totodile and Torchic, partners 'till the end of time!" I offered my hand, and Ember kicked it with her talon in our special hi-five.

_I know you will be fine... But what about Ember...? She cares a lot for you; she'd be so alone..._

"Hey... Jayce... There's something that... I always wanted to say to you..." She said, looking away shyly.

"Yeah... Ember?" I asked, putting a hand on her shoulder. However, she broke away and started walking out the room.

"...Never mind. Let's just... Get moving. We don't want the guild to be even more worried than they already are..." She said, her face forming a faint smile once again.

"Okay..." I said, about to follow her, when the tower started to collapse.

"L-let's run!" I said, mustering up the courage to grab her hand and run out the tower. After running a farther distance than any average Totodile would probably even run in their lifetime, we decided to stop and take a break at the entrance.

"Man... Too... Tired... Can't... Run... Anymore..." Ember gasped, trying to catch her breath.

"Yeah... I know... I'm pretty... Tired... Too..." I also gasped, my breath lost as well.

_Two dimensions cannot exist in correlation; if you change the future... You change yourself..._

Right before we were about to start running again, I started to feel funny.

"Jayce... What's happening to you...?"

I looked down, and realized that my blue arms were suddenly becoming transparent.

_Jayce... I realize I can't be your partner anymore... When I see you with Ember, I see a relationship that's even truer than the one we used to cherish... I realize... My absence left a hole in your heart... And Ember, instead of just patching it until the piece came back, she added to you... And helped you grow not as a person... But as a Pokemon, too..._

I guess it's time to get this over with.

"Ember... Before I went on the elevator-thing with you... There were... Some stuff that Grovyle left out of the restoration of Temporal Tower..." I said, hanging my head.

_J-Jayce! Stop bein an idiot and help me over here!_

_Thank you... Jayce and Ember!_

_We did a great job reuniting them, right, Jayce?_

"Well? Come on Jayce, out with it!" Ember yelled at me, her worrying eyes betraying her voice.

"When we restore Temporal Tower... We change the future..."

"And?" Ember asked, her quivering voice getting impatient.

"Since I'm part of the future... I... I... I..."

"You what?"

I hung my head even more before whispering, "I... I disappear..."

"WHAT!?" Ember yelled, her voice shaking and her eyes carrying both depression and sadness. "B-b-but... We didn't get to do anything fun yet! We didn't do hard missions! We didn't kick even more ass than we already did! We didn't even share our first kiss yet, for crying out lo-" Ember immediately shut her beak at what she realized she had just let slip.

"First... Kiss...? You... Feel that way towards me...?" I said, my voice quivering. If this was extremely difficult at first, then it just grew 10 times as difficult.

"Of course, dummy!" Ember forcefully replied, her eyes starting to water. "Why else would I care so much about you? Why else would I always cherish you the most? For crying out loud, why would I even try to remember all the conversations we had if I didn't have the slightest interest in-" Her reply was cut short by me-realizing I was almost out of time-kissing her.

For about a minute, we stood there, my jaw and her beak coming together as my body was fading. While kissing her, I felt as though time stopped, and it was just the two of us that existed in this cruel world we call life.

When we broke apart, gasping for air, only my shoulders, neck and head remained.

"So..." Ember shakily said, trying to be brave. "This is it, huh?"

"Yeah..." I replied. "Guess so..."

"But... I... Don't wanna say goodbye so soon!" Ember yelled, beginning to burst into tears.

"Don't cry... Ember..." I said, trying not to break down as well. "I will always be with you... Just not in the way you might seem..."

"B-but... I want you to be here by my side! You were the first to steal my heart, and take it away to a paradise among the bustle of Treasure Town!"

"It's okay..." When I tried to lift my hand up to her, I saw not my chubby, blue, Totodile hand, but a nice, 5-fingered, nostalgic hand. Not wanting the tears to come any more, I turned around, my hand going back into nonexistence.

"Ember... Try to be strong... For the both of us..." I said, almost gone.

Right before I disappeared, I swore I could hear screams and sobs piercing the thick fog that surrounded me.

* * *

Four years after the restoration of the Temporal Tower, things were beginning to look better. While some areas haven't been completely restored to it's beautiful state, all Pokemon across the area had been helping out to keep the peace. Dialga was getting better, and had just finished restoring the areas lost of time, and was now resting peacefully, keeping a watch over his favorite town: Treasure Town.

However, only one person felt worse from these events: our little friend, Ember.

Now, Ember didn't take it well after the loss of Jayce. And by not taking it well, I mean that she went into a couple stages of depression.

First stage: Isolation. Right after the "death" of Jayce, Ember quit the guild, and went over to live in a mountaintop far away, as everywhere else reminded her of Jayce. Living like that for a year, she survived from the food that Bidoof and Sunflora gave her, as they were the only Pokemon she allowed to come to her cave.

Second stage: Attempted Suicide. Going to the strongest Pokemon across the land, she asked them to kill her, so that she could join Jayce in the afterlife. She did this for half a year, but only survived because the Guild decided to follow her around and save her from doing anything dangerous.

Third stage: Patching. With the hole in her life still remaining, she decided that she would ultimately live for both herself and Jayce. Trying to find a new boyfriend, she kept trying out new people everyday, to see if they could ever match up to Jayce. However, after about a month into their relationship, she would realize that he could never match up to Jayce, and would dump him. After doing this 24 times and counting, she quickly earned the title of Heartbreaker.

As well as dating, she would often try to find joy in her main passion: exploring. Joining lots of Explorer teams, she would try to rediscover her passion for exploring. However, after about 10 floors in, she would suddenly remember Jayce, and would break into such a big bawling fit that the only way to move her was to use an Escape Orb. Finding no joy from this, she kept going at it, in hopes that one day she would get over Jayce. She never did.

One day, however, Dialga called for Ember to come to his tower. Saying he had a surprise, Ember slowly trudged her way to Temporal Tower, wondering exactly what this surprise could be.

* * *

**Jayce's Point of View**

...I didn't like the fog.

I was in the foggy land for what seemed like generations. Giving up on finding civilization, I quickly came accustomed to my three friends: Me, Myself, and I. Finding nothing to do, I was forced to just sit there... And wait.

However, I was sitting there, trying to figure out the interests of my new friends, when I felt a tug in my gut. A tug that symbolized only one thing.

"Ember's nearby..." I muttered. When I looked down, I saw my body becoming transparent again. However, this transparent didn't feel saddening. Rather, it was a very... Nostalgic feel.

Closing my eyes, I sat there... And waited.

* * *

"EMBER..."

"Yes... Dialga...sir...?"

"I'VE OBSERVED YOUR BEHAVIOR RECENTLY..."

"And...?" Ember asked, getting impatient. Why would Dialga call her here...?

"AND I'VE SEEN THAT YOUR LIFE WAS NEVER THE SAME AFTER THE DISAPPEARANCE OF JAYCE..."

"Oh, now we're talking about this?" Ember replied, getting angry. She was just starting to get over him, and now Dialga comes to try and console her?

"YES, WE ARE. NOW, AFTER RESTORING TIME EVERYWHERE, I THINK I CONSERVED ENOUGH ENERGY TO-"

"You know what?" Ember said, turning around. "I'm done here. Now, just gotta run back down the tower and-"

"FINE, EMBER. JUST PROMISE ME SOMETHING."

"What?"

"AT SUNSET, GO TO THE BEACH. THERE WILL BE SOMETHING WAITING FOR YOU."

"Okay...?" Ember replied, running back home.

* * *

"Why would Dialga want me to come here...?"

Ember was at the beach, looking at the beautiful waves as they crashed on the coast.

"Huh... Whenever I look at the waves, I remember... I remember..." Ember muttered, starting to cry.

"Jayce... Where are you...?"

Suddenly, on the coast, light started to come together, forming a shape.

"Wow... This... Is just like... Jayce's first day here..."

* * *

**Jayce's Point of View**

When I opened my eyes, I saw her.

"Ember..." I muttered, my face turning into a grin. Looking down, I saw myself turning back into the Totodile body I knew and loved.

"What?" Ember said, her eyes tearing up even more than they were. "It's you... Jayce..."

"Yup..." I said. "It's me..." Once my body was completely restored, I ran and hugged Ember, trying to savor each moment, as though I would disappear at any second once again.

"Jayce… It's been so long…" She choked up, leaning forward to kiss me. Kissing her back, I valiantly failed to hold my tears in, letting them fall onto the golden, nostalgic sand.

"I know… How long has it… How long has it been?" I asked, trying to figure out what the date was.

"About… Four years…" She replied, crying in joy. "I'm so happy… We should tell the others…"

"Yeah…" I replied, sitting down and motioning her to sit as well. "But… how about we just sit here for a bit? I mean, you know… Enjoy the sunset… Because… You know… If I appear in the guild… I won't be left alone for another week or so…"

"Yeah…" Ember sat down and nuzzled up against me, still trying to hold back her tears.

"Well…" I said, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. "We can… You know… Sleep here too…" I layed my head on hers, and fell asleep peacefully for the first time in four years, listening to the waves of the beach and being next to the person I love.

_Who gave me this second chance…?_

_Who gave me another shot with the pokemon I love…?_

_Who can I thank for letting me come back to this ball of joy known as Ember…?_

_Time… Time… It's all in the Time…_

"Thank you… Dialga…"


End file.
